Iron from steel and coal manufacturing is changing the North Pacific ecosystem: Study

Iron released from coal combustion and steel production is altering the ecosystem in a critical part of the North Pacific, a new study has found.

About 39 percent of dissolved iron in the uppermost layer of the ocean is rooted in human industrial activity, according to the study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Iron is essential for the growth of microscopic phytoplankton in the ocean, but industrial emissions contain aerosolized iron...